Ask the Accounting Community

I would think the mileage rate should be the same regardless of the vehicle used provided it is owned and maintained by the employee.  The condition of the employee's vehicle should not be relevant in determining the mileage reimbursement rate.

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Jennifer Shoemaker-Smith
Controller
Pearland TX
United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-10-2018 02:13 PM
From: Gerard Walsh
Subject: Mileage deduction

The current standard mileage deduction is $0.545 per mile. Does a car with, say 250,000 miles get this deduction just as would a car with, say, 20,000 miles? 

Thank you,

Rod Walsh

Rod, you will have to use this rate only on miles driven. If mikes driven for the year are 21,000 then multiply this by the rate otherwise. It's usulally advisable to have a mile tracker to determine miles driven. I hope you are not calculating mileage by multiplying the actual miles on the car by the rate. If you have to determine how many miles driven for the year, you will also have to subtract the old mileage a year ago from what it is today to find miles driven. What the group has said is true, it's miles driven and not actual miles on the car.

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Ambrose Kizza EA
Other
Boston MA
United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-11-2018 09:02 AM
From: Jennifer Shoemaker-Smith
Subject: Mileage deduction

I would think the mileage rate should be the same regardless of the vehicle used provided it is owned and maintained by the employee.  The condition of the employee's vehicle should not be relevant in determining the mileage reimbursement rate.

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Jennifer Shoemaker-Smith
Controller
Pearland TX
United States

Original Message:
Sent: 11-10-2018 02:13 PM
From: Gerard Walsh
Subject: Mileage deduction

The current standard mileage deduction is $0.545 per mile. Does a car with, say 250,000 miles get this deduction just as would a car with, say, 20,000 miles? 

Thank you,

Rod Walsh

Original Message------

The current standard mileage deduction is $0.545 per mile. Does a car with, say 250,000 miles get this deduction just as would a car with, say, 20,000 miles? 

Thank you,

Rod Walsh

If you have records to substantiate it. You should be able to, just as the 20000 mile user would. No records and you would more than likely have it disallowed when they looked into it.

Maggie MacDonald CPA


Sent from my iPad


Original Message------

The current standard mileage deduction is $0.545 per mile. Does a car with, say 250,000 miles get this deduction just as would a car with, say, 20,000 miles? 

Thank you,

Rod Walsh

Thank you for all the helpful answers.

My memory from tax accounting in the 1070s was the rate dropped for high mileage cars. Either my memory is faulty or the law has changed.

Thanks again,
Rod

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Gerard Walsh
Other
National University
Johnson Valley CA
United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-11-2018 04:18 PM
From: Margaret Macdonald
Subject: Mileage deduction

If you have records to substantiate it. You should be able to, just as the 20000 mile user would. No records and you would more than likely have it disallowed when they looked into it.

Maggie MacDonald CPA


Sent from my iPad


Original Message------

The current standard mileage deduction is $0.545 per mile. Does a car with, say 250,000 miles get this deduction just as would a car with, say, 20,000 miles? 

Thank you,

Rod Walsh

Original Message------

Thank you for all the helpful answers.

My memory from tax accounting in the 1070s was the rate dropped for high mileage cars. Either my memory is faulty or the law has changed.

Thanks again,
Rod

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Gerard Walsh
Other
National University
Johnson Valley CA
United States
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Original Message------

I am retired and have 50 years of  Mater Tax Guides to give away if anyone would like them.

Roy Howarter

Hi Roy,

I am interested in the Master Tax Guides, and will greatly appreciate if you could let me have them. Let me know if you need me to provide my contact details. My email address is - ohonsi@...

Regards,

Peter.

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Peter Ohonsi
Analyst
Toronto ON
Canada
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-13-2018 08:28 PM
From: Roy Howarter
Subject: Mileage deduction

I am retired and have 50 years of  Mater Tax Guides to give away if anyone would like them.

Roy Howarter

Original Message------

Thank you for all the helpful answers.

My memory from tax accounting in the 1070s was the rate dropped for high mileage cars. Either my memory is faulty or the law has changed.

Thanks again,
Rod

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Gerard Walsh
Other
National University
Johnson Valley CA
United States
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​Hi, Gerard (& others),

There is an IRS publication that goes into the detail of how the mileage rate is calculated.  It used to be easier to find than it is with the current website.

At any rate, part of the rate is based on the average price of gas, part is based on the average cost of car repairs, etc.

It is generally easiest to use the standard rate, but I've worked for companies where they took apart the rate for some employees who used their cars substantially more for work than others: specifically people who made sales calls over large geographic regions.  These people got a "car allowance" (a taxable pay type), and a reduced amount paid per mile.  It also came with a stipulation that to receive a car allowance, the car driven had to be 5 years old or less.

It's really a company by company thing, but, again, the standard mileage rate is fair UNLESS there is a huge amount of mileage paid, in which case you might want to come to fair terms another way.

-Nancy

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Nancy McCleary CPA
Accountant
San Diego CA
United States
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-10-2018 02:13 PM
From: Gerard Walsh
Subject: Mileage deduction

The current standard mileage deduction is $0.545 per mile. Does a car with, say 250,000 miles get this deduction just as would a car with, say, 20,000 miles? 

Thank you,

Rod Walsh